1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of removing coupling members from a slide fastener having a pair of coupling member supporting bands and spirally or meander shaped coupling members located at opposite longitudinal edges of said supporting band and coupled to each other, which coupling members comprise a head section and a foot section.
The invention relates further to an apparatus for removing coupling members from a slide fastener having a pair of coupling member supporting bands and spirally or meander shaped coupling members located at opposite longitudinal edges of said supporting band and coupled to each other, which coupling members comprise a head section and a foot section.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several methods and apparatuses of above described kind are generally known and have as common characteristic the procedure of severing initially the head sections of the coupling members of a slide fastener in a coupled condition by the agency of a stamping tool whereupon the sections of the cut coupling members remaining initially on the supporting band are removed therefrom.
A known design of an apparatus operating in accordance to above procedure or method, respectively, is provided with a stamping apparatus for severing the head sections and a further apparatus for removing the remaining sections of the coupling members, which latter apparatus is located at a distance of mentioned stamping apparatus and comprises two counter-rotating disks including teeth extending along the circumference thereof, by means of which the remaining sections of the coupling members are torn off the supporting band.
A method of and apparatus for removing coupling members from a slide fastener band are disclosed in the CH-A-543 866. According to this disclosure the head sections of the coupling elements are cut by the agency of a stamping tool and the remaining sections of the coupling elements are pulled off the supporting bands following the same method as explained above. The apparatus for carrying out this method operates differently in comparison with the apparatus mentioned above in that the cutting of the head sections and the removing of the remaining sections is carried out following two method steps in one and the same apparatus.
The practical operation has shown that none of the above mentioned designs leads to satisfactory results. Difficulties arise specifically because above methods and procedures are applied to a closed slide fastener band. A danger of damaging the yarns of the textile web and of the supporting bands is always present if cutting or severing, respectively, the coupling members in a condition in which they are coupled together and, furthermore, a slight cutting of the head sections located at the ends of the section of the slide fastener which is not to have coupling members cannot be prevented. A specific drawback is that the number of the cut head sections is larger than the number of removed foot sections in case a gripping and partly tearing off of the slightly cut coupling members shall be prevented, which leads to a remaining of at least one foot section in the supporting band at both ends of the slide fastener section having no coupling members and a further drawback is that the foot sections are removed in a direction of the supporting band and in the last phase of this removing step the supporting band is no longer safely held.